I love to turn the calendar to a new month’s page. In one sense, it’s just the next day after the last one. But there’s something about looking ahead to birthdays and holidays of the month as well as the unfilled days.

Fridays, though, we look back at the week that so quickly passed by to search for and acknowledge the good things before their memory slips away from us. Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts this weekly gathering. Feel free to join in!

1. A visit to the Ark Encounter in KY, which I described here. (My apologies to those of you who have seen this referenced three times this week. 🙂 Some who read my monthly recaps or Friday’s Fave Five only visit here for those posts.) The opportunity came through a friend of Jason and Mittu’s offering us free tickets, good through February.

2. Amazon gift cards. I was looking through gift cards I had received but had not put in my purse yet, and was surprised to find two Amazon gift cards I had forgotten about. It was like receiving a gift all over again.

3. Hand towels from Mittu’s mother. She visited them for a long weekend and gave me some hand towels that she had crocheted a strap for, as well as some trivets. These are nice to keep the towel from sliding off the rod.

4. An agreeable prescription. I mentioned last time that my bone density test had shown “a little thinning.” I was called in to talk to the doctor about it and was a little miffed that we couldn’t just discuss it over the phone. But he agreed that since the bone loss was so minimal at this point, I could just take calcium supplements and engage in weight-bearing exercises. He mentioned a few available medications, but I didn’t want to start those if I didn’t have to. One bonus about being there in person, though, was that I was able to ask him about the wounds that caused me so much trouble over the last several weeks. They had healed over but were still discolored. The doctor said they looked fine and the redness in some areas did not indicate infection.

5. Closing for Jesse’s house. We had a couple more hiccups in the process this week, but finally all the papers were signed. He’s excited to move in this weekend.

Bonus: Daffodils are blooming already!

That wraps up February!

It’s astonishing to me that February is almost over. Busy days make the time fly faster. I’m pausing today with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to share a few favorite parts of the past week.

1. Lunch with Melanie last Friday. We usually get together once every 4-6 weeks. But due to illness of one or both of us and bad weather, we hadn’t seen each other since early December. We had a lot to catch up on.

I had gift cards to Cracker Barrel, making our get-together a double treat. I usually choose from regular favorites there, but tried something new this time: a platter of sirloin tips, grilled chicken tenders, and shrimp. The sirloin was a bit disappointing, but everything else was delicious.

2. Mittu’s birthday. It was a joy to celebrate my daughter-in-law. (Jason made the cake!)

I have no idea about Timothy’s expression. 🙂 He’s at that age where he likes to make funny faces for pictures.

3. Church missions conference. In other churches I’ve been in, missions conference is three to six nights long. The church we’re in now has a missions conference on Sundays over three weeks with different missionary speakers. I love that it’s spread out rather than so much crammed together. The speaker last Sunday had been a missionary in China for several decades. Hearing how God was working and what people would risk just to be able to hear God’s Word taught was both inspiring and rebuking.

4. Scans done. Getting the yearly mammogram and biennial bone density test over with is always a pleasure. But it was especially so this year because they’d had to be rescheduled several times. It’s nice to have them DONE and off the calendar. I just heard back this morning (Thursday) that the mammogram results were fine, but the bone density test showed “a little thinning” for the first time. I’m supposed to go in next week to hear what to do about it–hopefully nothing worse than taking calcium supplements. I asked if we couldn’t just discuss it over the phone, but that doesn’t appear to be an option.

5. Fencing. Longtime readers may remember a few years ago that a row of 50 trees across our back property line got some disease and died. After the ordeal of getting them cut down and hauled away, my husband found some vinyl fencing on Craig’s list which he cleaned and put up in place of the trees for some privacy. We’ve talked about someday adding to the fence line to enclose the back yard and sides. But new fencing is expensive. This week, my husband found the same type and color used fencing for sale on Facebook. He drove two and a half hours today to pick it up.

Bonus: Good news. My oldest son had undergone a series of medical tests and got word this week that the problem is none of the scary things we were concerned about. My youngest son’s loan was approved for his first house purchase, so he’s all set for closing.

Happy Friday! I hope you’ve had a good week!

Happy Friday! I enjoy this weekly gathering to recount the good, the blessed, the positive parts of our week with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story. Please feel free to join in.

1. Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. We enjoy celebrating it as a family with heart-shaped treats on heart-shaped plates, cards expressing love and appreciation, food, conversation, and fun.

2. Cute, creative garlic bread made by Mittu:

3. Parchment paper. Growing up, the only parchment I knew anything about was used for calligraphy. I didn’t know anything about parchment paper for cooking. Even once I knew about it, I never used it because I didn’t know its advantages. I’ve only recently begun to use it frequently to help food not stick to pans and make cleanup easier. Wonderful stuff!

4. Conflict resolution and good customer service people. There was a mix-up on eBay with something my husband sold, and it was going to cost him a few hundred dollars. Multiple attempts to communicate failed to yield any results. Finally he got hold of a real person who listened, understood the issue, and was able to rectify it.

5. Everyday love. As much as I love Valentine’s Day in all its expressions, it wouldn’t mean as much if love weren’t shown in everyday ways. I’m thankful for family and friends who are thoughtful, helpful, prayerful, loving, and kind in everyday ways.

The Fridays just keep coming faster and faster. I’m thankful Susanne at Living to Tell the Story encourages us to pause for a few minutes every week and focus on the good things that have happened. This practice reminds us that good things have happened, that we can be thankful for them, and helps them last a bit longer before we pass to the next week.

1. Dinner and game night. Last week, Mittu and Jason brought over dinner and Settlers of Cataan. They had taught Timothy to play while they were snowed in a couple of weeks ago. We had not played it often as a family the last few years because it’s a long game, and we didn’t want to leave Timothy out while the rest of us were playing. So it’s nice he can participate now.

2. Gas discount. This happened last week, but I forgot to mention it. Getting gas was among my errands one day. We shop at two different grocery stores, both of which have gas stations and gas reward points. I usually get gas at one, but this time decided to stop at the other. I didn’t know that I had enough points for $1.20 off per gallon. Plus they expired the next day! The other station only allows $1 off at a time, no matter how many reward points you have. But this one allowed for the whole $1.20. This amounted to about $18 savings for almost a full tank of gas.

3. Jesse’s house. I mentioned that my youngest, Jesse, has been house-hunting. He put an offer on one, and things have been falling into place. The inspection showed a few problems, but nothing major. The seller was willing to take care of the one thing we most wanted her to. Then the appraisal came in just a bit below the asking price, but the seller was willing to drop the price to the appraisal rate. So it looks like everything is a go!

4. Nice weather. We’ve been in the 50s most days, even the 60s some days. I know winter hasn’t had its last hurrah yet, but I am enjoying the moderate temperatures while we have them.

5. New routines. I don’t like a rigid schedule: it feels too pressured. But I operate best with some kind of routine. Since Jim retired at the end of last year, and with all the sickness of January, we’ve not known what to expect every day. But now we seem to be settling into something of a flexible pattern.

How was your week?

Yay for the first Friday in February! The weather is cold, but after single digits in January, 30+ degrees doesn’t feel so bad. I’m joining Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story in sharing five good things from the past week.

1. Bird feeders. I had been neglecting them, but my husband filled them the last couple of weeks. The birds are slowly finding them again, mainly chickadees and cardinals so far.

2. Getting back to church. I’m abundantly thankful church is available live online. We benefited from it through weeks of illness. But it was so good to be able to be there in person again.

3. An outing. I had a doctor’s appointment Tuesday, then went to Hobby Lobby to get some supplies for Valentine’s cards. I had a gift card, so I indulged in some pretties for the kitchen as well.

4. A long overdue haircut does wonders in helping me feel put together rather than a mess.

5. A good visit with Timothy. I mentioned in my end-of-month wrap-up that our church held a parenting seminar last weekend. We watched Timothy so Jason and Mittu could go. Though he’s comfortable with us, he had never been with us quite that long before–one evening plus the next morning and early afternoon. But he did fine. He and his Granddad played games, including checkers–the standard way at first, then making up their own rules. 🙂

How was your week?

I was so sorry to miss Friday’s Fave Five last week. It’s the first time in ages I’ve missed. I wrote a family update to share that we’d had layers of sickness and happenings. Thankfully, we’re doing better, though we’re still not 100% healed.

I’m glad to share again with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Hot water. Our hot water heater died on Jan. 3. The new one didn’t arrive until Jan. 14. But with snow and ice that next week, Jim wanted to wait to start work on it until he was sure Home Depot would be open and accessible in case he needed anything while working on it. It was finally successfully installed last Friday, the 19th! I’m thankful we had a camp shower, but even more thankful to have a regular one back. Plus it’s nice to wash our hands in warm rather than freezing water.

2. Safety in snow and ice. It’s unusual for our area to get almost ten inches of snow. It’s even more unusual for it to stay around for more than a week. But single-digit temperatures not only kept the snow, it turned it into blocks of ice. We have trucks that put salt and sand on the main roads, but otherwise we’re not equipped to deal with ice and snow since we don’t often have it. School was out for more than a week (though they probably had online classes). Mail trucks didn’t run those days, either, at least not in neighborhoods like ours..

I was thankful that none of our family lost power or had pipes break. In fact, I didn’t hear of anyone we know of experiencing that.

3. Normalcy. I didn’t lose my sense of taste with Covid, but certain things regular things just didn’t have any appeal or hit wrong (that may have been due to illness or medicines as well). My taste is pretty much back to normal and my digestive system is getting there. It’s been nice to get back to normal energy levels and routines. Two of the four infected wounds that set off cellulitis are healed; the two biggest ones concern me because they still look infected. They are improving steadily, though, if slowly. (I’d appreciate your prayers for that to heal completely.)

4. My dear husband took care of me, did all the errands and grocery shopping, heated frozen entrees for himself when all I could eat was canned chicken soup, and figured out how to install a hot water heater, all while he wasn’t feeling well, himself. He’s doing better and tests negative for Covid now, but still has a lingering cough and congestion.

5. A picture of my grandmother. One of my cousins sent me some old photos this week. I asked if he had any of our grandmother, particularly one that looked like it was for a church directory. I’d seen it but somehow never had a copy. Within minutes he messaged it to me. That’s such a treasure. Previously, I’d only had one old blurry one of her on a beach and another about thirty years ago when we visited her on our way to see my family in TX.

I hope you’re staying warm and safe and well where you are

Well, friends, it has been a rough week.

I mentioned last week that our hot water heater had died. We’re still without a hot water heater.

I mentioned having a couple of infected sores on one leg. Sunday morning, the area under the sores was red for a few inches. I kept an eye on it, planning to call my doctor in the morning. But by mid-afternoon, the redness had wrapped around my lower leg. So we went to the ER, where I was diagnosed with cellulitis, given an IV antibiotic, and sent home with a prescription antibiotic to take in addition to the one I was on.

We were in the ER five hours, mostly in the waiting room. They were so full, they’d call me back to take a blood sample or whatever and then send me back out to the waiting room. I noticed a lot of both patients and staff wearing masks. I asked one nurse if they were seeing an upsurge in Covid. She said yes, that and flu and RSV.

I don’t know why I didn’t think to ask for a mask or remember I had some at the bottom of my purse.

Monday morning, I started having a sore throat and runny nose.

Tuesday afternoon, I had a follow-up visit with my primary care doctor, where I was diagnosed with Covid.

The triple antibiotics are negatively affecting my digestive system, to put it lightly. (I’m taking probiotics. Yogurt actually makes it worse.)

Then Jim developed a bad cold, but thankfully tested negative for Covid.

So . . . not the best of weeks. And I’ve had my share of whiny moments. But I’m thankful for this regular exercise Susanne hosts at Living to Tell the Story, where we take time to look for five blessings in the week. Sometimes they are harder to find; sometimes it seems like the bad outweighs the good. But they are always there. And it helps to remember that good is happening and to be thankful for it.

1. My son and daughter-in-law brought over three meals for us.

2. Friends have texted or messaged me to see how I am doing and assured me of their prayers.

3. Medicine. One of our former pastors used to say God can work with medicine, without medicine, or in spite of medicine. 🙂 I’m praying He would do just that. I look at medicines as His tools. Even though I am appalled at having to take so much, I am thankful we have them.

4. Sunshine. Most of this week, the sky has looked almost as dark as the photo at the top. I don’t mind rainy days so much, as we need them. But when the dark clouds just hang around for days, I wish they’d go ahead and rain and get it over with. Thursday has been a mostly sunny day, and that makes such a difference in one’s mood and outlook.

5. Carb substitutes. We’re both trying to watch our carbs and sugar these days. We already used rice cauliflower in place of rice sometimes, and “zoodles” made of zucchini for spaghetti noodles (better fresh that frozen). Mittu made a dish over the holidays that used gnocchi made from cauliflower rather than potatoes. It was really good, so I asked if they could grab a bag of it the next time they went to Trader Joe’s. They got that as well as noodles made of kohlrabi.

We’d sure appreciate your prayers for healing.

Have a good weekend!

This week didn’t turn out to be quite as restful as I was anticipating after the last couple of lovely and busy weeks. Wednesday morning just before my shower, I discovered we had no hot water. The water heater kept setting off the breaker. Jim tried an easy fix, but it didn’t work. He ordered a new hot water heater, which won’t get here until next Thursday (the 11th). So by that time we’ll have been eight days without hot water.

But even among frustrations, there are blessings. Here are a few I’m sharing with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story. Please feel free to join in!

1. Provisions. Though it’s frustrating and inconvenient not to have hot water, we have options. We have a tiny shower in the RV. And Jim set up a camp shower he’d gotten some time ago in one bathroom. It’s not as warm as a normal shower, but it’s tolerable. We have disposable plates and utensils. I can warm up water to wash dishes the old-fashioned way. The laundry was caught up, but I use mostly cold water for that, anyway. I’m aware that many places in the world don’t have clean water, much less running water in the house or hot water. I try to remind myself of these things when I start feeling grumbly.

2. More family time. Jeremy left for RI Monday morning, so we had the whole weekend still for the family to do things together. He made a wonderful halel chicken and rice dish on Saturday. One year when he came to us by train, he found a food truck at one of his stopovers and had some, then went home to look up how to make it.

Jesse had us over Friday night for some amazing nachos.

After church Sunday, we all went out to one of our favorite restaurants.

3. Fun games. We often play Jackbox games via Apple TV. Timothy can play some of them, and what he doesn’t play, he watches while playing something else on his iPad. He also got Uno Attack this year, which includes a little machine that makes funny noises and spits out anywhere from 0 to a handful of cards.

Then Jeremy brought a game he had received as a white elephant gift: Poetry for Neanderthals. At first it sounded a little weird—you choose a card and have to describe it with one-syllable words so your team guesses it. If you mess up and say a two-syllable word or say the word on the card, someone from the other team gets to bop you with an inflatable “No” stick. It turned out to be so much fun and had us all laughing.

4. A handy husband. I’m so thankful Jim’s knows or can easily figure out how to fix many things.

5. Antibiotics. I have a couple of wounds on one leg that got infected. I finally got in to see the doctor yesterday, so I’m hoping the medicine kicks in soon.

That’s our week! How was yours?

Some Fridays, it takes a bit of thought to come up with five favorites for the week for Friday’s Fave Five with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story. But other weeks, like this one for us, it’s hard to narrow the favorites down to five. Here’s my best attempt:

1. Christmas, of course: the music, decorations, lights, food, cards and letters from friends and loved ones, time with family, and most of all, the reminder that God loved us enough to send Him to redeem us.

2. Family outings. Last Saturday, we visited Sweetwater Valley Farm, took a tour of the facility, saw the robotic cow milkers in progress, heard a lot of interesting facts about the science and psychology of managing a dairy farm, and ate great food at their cafe, made with cheeses produced there. Beforehand, Jim said, “I can’t believe we’re paying to see a dairy farm” since he grew up surrounded by them. But at the end, he thought it was a great place to visit. Our tour guide was quite amusing.

Then Wednesday we went to James White’s Fort, which was where Knoxville got its start. One neat feature of their tour is QR codes on the doorposts of each building that you can scan and hear more about the building, the things inside it, and the activities that would have taken place in it.

We got done there pretty early in the afternoon, so went over to the Knoxville Museum of Art. I love that it’s free and not terribly large. If it had cost a lot to get in, you’d feel you had to wait til you had several hours. This way, we can wander in for a bit when we’re downtown.

After that, we ate at Smash City, which was amazing.

3. A sweet gesture. While at the cheese shop of the dairy farm, I saw someone at the checkout of the gift shop with a cute pink mug. I asked where she found it in the store, but she said she only saw the one. I looked around there as well as the shop connected with the cafe, and saw blue cups, but no pink ones. I lamented that to the family. A little while later, Jim wandered off to check at both shops, then saw one on a display behind the counter. He asked if he could buy that one, and they said yes.

4. A new computer! I had become increasingly frustrated with my computer running slow and having trouble doing what it was supposed to. One problem was that I was running on Windows 7 in a Windows 11 world. 🙂 Another was old drivers. I had determined that while Jeremy was here, I wanted Jim to confer with him about what would be best to do. But on Christmas morning, I was surprised to find that they had gotten a new one! Jim said he was afraid it would be viewed like a vacuum cleaner or iron–necessary but not a very exciting gift. I assured him I was excited!

Then Jeremy got everything set up for me, transferred all my files over (which took a couple of days because it ran so slowly), and deleted a bunch of extraneous stuff.

I am extremely well-pleased! I feel like I’ve gone from a donkey race to the Indy 500.

5 Clever Clasps. I have trouble fastening a few of my necklaces, even with turning them around and looking in the mirror. I knew I had some of these magnetic clasps, but couldn’t find them (after having moved them from the “wrong” place, where I used to see them all the time, to a location I couldn’t remember). I found them this week while looking for something else. They work so well!

I hope you have a great weekend and Happy 2024!

Ready or not, Christmas is coming! I hope your preparations are going well and you have some quiet time to just enjoy the season and reflect on its meaning.

This has been a full week, and I’m grateful Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts this weekly pause to recount blessings that otherwise will be all too soon forgotten, perhaps even unnoticed. Here are a few of mine:

1. Jeremy is home! My oldest son flew in this week and we’re looking forward to family time all together.

1. Our 44th anniversary. Our anniversary fell on Jeremy’s first evening home, so we celebrated a couple of nights early by going out to a nice restaurant. Then on the day, Jim surprised me with flowers and we exchanged cards. I’m thankful for our years together and would not have wanted to go on the journey with anyone else.

3. Catching up. Last week I was behind schedule. I prayed over making the family Christmas cards, and it’s amazing how well and quickly they all came together. God gave strength and efficiency to get done the main things that needed doing.

4. Sunday school lesson. One of our ladies’ Sunday School teachers was out of town and the other was sick. The latter called me to ask if I might be willing to share a devotional that Sunday, and another lady would lead in an extended prayer time for concerns over Christmas break (traveling, tense family situations, etc.). I had not done anything like that in at least thirteen years. I asked if I could let her know the following day in order to pray and let nerves settle down. That night, I saw this among my Twitter/X feed:

I don’t know if I would say it was a sign, but it helped. 🙂 I said yes and looked at some of my past Christmas posts: due to short notice and the extreme busyness of the week, I felt I’d have to use something I had already studied out. Everything came together, none of my physical issues caused problems, and there were some good comments during the discussion. I don’t think I’d want to make a habit of this. 🙂 But I was abundantly grateful for God’s help.

5. Family Christmas night at church. One of this church’s traditions is a “Family Christmas Night” in December. Anyone can sing, recite a poem, do some kind of skit or drama, etc., alone or with others. Some of the selections were serious, some funny. Timothy’s “Eagle Club” recited verses they’ve been learning–his first time doing anything onstage, and he did great. Then they had finger food refreshments afterward. It was a fun evening. Jim already has some ideas for next year. 🙂

Bonus: Turkey Bone Soup is something we usually have the week after Thanksgiving. There never seemed to be a good time, so we put the bones and turkey leftovers in the freezer. We ended up having it last night. One of our favorite things.

Another bonus: staying well. Colds, strep, RSV, and Covid are going around, and I was praying we’d stay well til Jeremy got here and through Christmas. Now I am praying the same for the rest of his visit.

I wish all of you who celebrate the day a very special and happy Christmas!

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”(Galatians 4:4-5).